Russo, Patricia

Patricia Russo, in full Patricia Fiorello Russo, (born June 12, 1952, Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.), American businesswoman who served as CEO of Lucent Technologies (later called Alcatel-Lucent) from 2002 to 2008.

Russo had six siblings. She was active in sports and captained the cheerleading squad before graduating from Lawrence High School in 1969. In 1973 she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and subsequently began an eight-year career in sales and marketing at IBM. While with IBM, Russo developed a customer-oriented perspective that would influence her future management style.

Joining AT&T in 1981, Russo spent the next decade in marketing, human resources, operations, and strategic planning. She completed Harvard University’s rigorous Advanced Management Program in 1989, and three years later AT&T chose her to restructure its faltering Business Communications Systems division as its president. Russo’s turnaround permitted AT&T to spin off the division as Avaya, Inc. She moved to the telecommunications firm Lucent Technologies in time for its $3 billion initial public offering in 1996, serving as executive vice president for corporate operations (1997–99) and vice president and CEO of Lucent’s core business, the service provider networks group (1999–2000). Russo left in 2000 and became president and chief operating officer of Eastman Kodak in April 2001—only to return in 2002 as Lucent’s president and CEO. She was elevated to chairman and CEO in February 2003.

By the following year Russo had accomplished what few had expected. One of the most widely held stocks in the late 1990s, Lucent had seen its share price plummet to less than $1 per share by 2002. As business dried up and layoffs and financial losses persisted, the chances of Lucent’s recovery seemed slim, but Russo boldly promised to return the company to profitability before the end of 2003. She kept her word and led Lucent on a course of modest but steady growth that emphasized service and customer contact, although the year’s profits came largely through slashes in spending, cuts to retiree benefits, and reductions in research-and-development budgets that spurred protests.

In 2006 she helped broker a multibillion-dollar merger between Lucent and French telecom giant Alcatel SA. The inherent difficulties of a deal of that magnitude, however, combined with a global economic downturn, saw Alcatel-Lucent underperform over the following years, and Russo stepped down as CEO in 2008. In July 2009 Russo was appointed to the board of directors of General Motors. She also served on the boards of various other companies, and in 2015 she became chairman of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s board.